


Which Witch?

by greatpanache



Category: SHINee
Genre: Alcohol, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Witch AU, a shinee halloween, witches by way of ghost hunting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-28
Updated: 2019-10-28
Packaged: 2021-01-05 03:16:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21206510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greatpanache/pseuds/greatpanache
Summary: Jinki thinks he sees something in the forest one day.Obviously the first conclusion is that it's something paranormal.Right?





	Which Witch?

It was not lost on Jinki that any connection he felt with nature on his walk along the trails of the state forest was negated by the fact that the trails were federally mandated to exist, and that he drove 6 miles from his house in the suburbs to get to the trail in the first place.

But his new hobby in photography had led him to buying a new wide camera lens that begged to capture some wide expanses of flora, so here he was. In one of his favorite local parks, over halfway through one of the longest walking trails. He waited until a group of joggers were fully out of view, before setting up his shot and getting to work.

It was later that week over a still steeping mug of chamomile that Jinki was able to sit down and finally open Adobe Lightroom to edit the photos. Work that day had been as tedious and menial as the day before it…

And the day before that…

And the day before that…

It wasn’t that he hated his job, right? Right? He did important work that people needed done. That should make him feel good, feel content, feel wanted.

But it didn’t. He clocked out in the evening, hollow as ever, and returned to his home which was similarly empty. It was out of this dissatisfaction that Jinki started photography in the first place. To find new beautiful things: from what he hasn’t seen yet, and from a new perspective of the things he already has.

It was a romantic way to think of it, anyway. For the moment it was a matter of him importing the photos from his SD card and getting ready to color correct. The shots of the buttercup shrubs looked nice, if albeit a bit off-centered. 

Then, as he increased the brightness on one of the shots, one he particularly liked. Vines grew in tendrils around the base of a tree, one of which folding off into the horizon. Just a few clicks up and it should look just right…

Wait.

What the hell was that?

At that horizon line, peeking in and out of background tree trunks, a silhouette. Translucent, almost faded, in the peeking rays of sunlight.

Was it a person on the other side of the trail? No… Jinki clearly remembered that section. It was along one of the outermost loops. If there was a person there, it had to have been either a park ranger or a trespasser.

But the last time he checked, rangers and trespassers didn’t look like they faded in and out of the light like smudged coal.

No. There’s no way. 

Surely Jinki was just jumping to conclusions. He was jumping to foolish conclusions because surely he did not just capture a ghost on film.

Right?

Ah, now the idea was too firmly planted in his mind. He could keep saying no, that that was irrational, but the thought of his accidental discovery kept coming back to the front of his mind. Returning like an itch.

No Jinki, ghosts aren’t real.

That’s exactly what someone who purposely wanted to keep ghosts a secret would tell you.

Now what?

Jinki decided he needed a second opinion. A second opinion from someone wouldn’t entertain his whims of fancy. Someone who would give him a raw and unbiased answer.

******

“Taemin, I need you to look at this picture and tell me anything you notice that’s out of the ordinary”

Jinki’s delivery was dry, methodical. Like he brought his step brother over to spot the criminal out of a lineup.

“Well…” Taemin’s head tilted as he looked at the picture on the monitor, equally methodical. “The composition is a little weak”

“Excuse me?”

“Rule of thirds, Jinki, you’re violating it here”

“I appreciate the feedback, I guess, but that’s not exactly what I was asking for”

“Well if it wasn’t so obvious it wouldn’t have been the first thing I noticed”

“Okay, I get it. Do you notice anything else?”

Taemin’s lips puckered as his focus turned back to his informal game of I Spy. Would he notice what Jinki saw at all, much less come to the same conclusion? What if it was a ghost in his computer that put the blurred figure there last night, that adds a whole new layer of complication-

“What’s this?” Taemin pointed at the screen with his tiny finger. Thank god, he was pointing at the same patch slightly northeast of the center that had kept Jinki up all night. At least that’s out of the way. Now to lead Taemin to his own conclusions without diluting his own observations with Jinki’s own increasing paranoia.

“What do you think it is?”

“Well I would say it looked like smudged ink if this wasn’t digital. It’s not a physical scan you got your clumsy inked-up hands all over, right?”

“Nope.”

“Well, that’s about the best thing I could think of… oh maybe it’s one of those spirit orbs!”

“Those what?”

“You know, those things they talk about on all the ghost hunting tv shows”

Ghost hunting.

“They’re usually bright, not dark like this. It’s supposed to be proof that a ghost just flew by your camera or something”

“So you also think it’s a ghost?” Jinki asked.

“So you thought it was a ghost?” Taemin quipped.

“It was the first best thing I could think of” Jinki tried not to sound like he was being caught with his hand in the cookie jar of conspiracy theories. 

Taemin shifted back in the desk chair, contemplating. “I mean why not? Are you worried you’re going to be shunned because thinking of supernatural things isn’t cool at the ol’ 9-to-5?”

Easy for him to say. Jinki had watched Taemin grow up and achieve to dream as a professional dancer. He moved into Jinki’s mom’s house, turned it upside down, and then left him behind to go to a performing arts school on a full ride while Jinki had stayed behind. Not that he was bitter. Quite the opposite, actually. He was so proud for Taemin that sometimes his heart would break if he thought about it for too long.

The same way his heart would break when he thought about how he felt unsatisfied with the way his decisions had brought him to this state of living.

But that was beside the point.

“So what do I do now that I have ghost footage?”

“I don’t know, keep an eye out for any kitchen cabinets to start opening and closing by themselves”

Jinki laughed. “What you really mean is ‘keep an eye out because I’m going to set up invisible string all over your kitchen?’”

Taemin waggled his eyebrows, mischievous as ever. “Speaking of your kitchen, do you have anything good up there?”

\-----

Embarrassment spread over Jinki in the form of a peach blush as a package arrived on his doorstep a few days later. He had finally caved and ordered something late in the night and now he was staring down his decision like a hungover person would the morning after a debaucherous night.

Jinki told himself it was just to satisfy an urge, to get it out of his system. It wouldn’t become a regular thing.

All it would take would be one night with his new starter ghost hunting kit to assuage all of his thoughts.

He unpackaged all of the items meticulously: an EMF meter, and EVP recorder, a non-contact thermometer, and a spirit box. They were all devices to achieve the same thing, the observation of the paranormal, in different ways. Now it was just a matter of getting back to the park.

A mild sting operation to catch a ghost wandering a parks-district-operated trail, it’s easy.

Or at least it should be easy.

He could surely go during the day next Saturday. He could take his car back down, hike down with his briefcase of goodies, and set up shop along the trail, and get exactly what he wanted before sundown.

But then he thought about having to take out a suspiciously large black bag that obviously would not be holding photography equipment. What would all the parents and small children, trying to create beautiful lifetime memories, think of the suspicious weird man wandering into the woods by himself? Oh, he couldn’t bare the thought.

So, sneaking into the park at night it was.

\-----

Jinki waited until the sun was nearly done setting until he got his bike off the rack, with a healthy amount of reflective gear attached of course, and threw his equipment back into the bike’s attached basket.

Unsurprisingly, the park was empty. Anyone who would be at the park during the day was doing more socially acceptable things at this time, like barbequing with their relatives or going to the movies.

Jinki brought his bike slightly inward along the trail before locking it around a tree. Both to hide the reflectors from the main road and so he would be quickly be able to see the path on his way out.

As he made his way down to the faithful spot, he was hyper aware of every snap of a branch and every rustle of leaves against one another.

He eventually reached what seemed to be the clearing, the sunlight was rapidly disappearing, and started unpacking his equipment. He skimmed the instruction manuals for each and had a general idea of what he was supposed to look for.

Things rustle in the woods and that’s entirely normal.

Animals scurry around at night and that’s entirely normal.

I’m the one who is trespassing, off trail and after hours.

It was a clarifying moment to realize that Jinki was the odd one out at that moment.

So that was how he carried on. He kept an EVP on to listen back to later in the comfort of his own apartment. The EMF was… working, at least Jinki was pretty sure it was. It was beeping and at a steady level. Maybe in the meantime he could try and duplicate the picture he got before.

He procured his camera, making sure that the flash was off. The last thing he needed was a park ranger catching him-

“Hey, are you that guy from earlier?” A new voice called out.

Please what the hell is happening. 

Jinki couldn’t do anything else but freeze.

“Yeah, you. The only other idiot to be out here at this time of night that isn’t smoking weed or hooking up”

Insult to injury.

“I-” any will Jinki had to sound self-assured withered into the brisk night. “I’m sorry to be trespassing. I’ll be going home now” He knew to accept when he had been cornered.

“What? No, you’re not in trouble. I don’t have the authority to tell you what to do. I just think you should stick with me and I’ll bring you back to your bike” The voice was bright, attractive even. It would have been almost disarming if this wasn’t the most terrifying moment of Jinki’s life.

How did he know Jinki came in on a bike? Oh God, this went from a ghost story to a true crime episode…

Jinki gathered up what could be the last smidge of courage he’d ever get the chance to feel in his life. “You asked if I was the guy from earlier. What exactly were you referring to?”

“That was you, right? Last week, you were taking pictures right here”

“Were you someone along the trail when I was here?”

“Yeah, I think you accidentally got me in one of your shots. Which I must say, is a very rare thing to happen. So, congratulations, I guess”

Jinki thought back to all of the photos in his camera roll. He had made a very conscious effort to not get any passers-by when he was setting up his shots. He hadn’t seen any faces in the photos he had edited. So that must have meant...

“Are you the ghost?”

The possibly-ghost-voice guffawed. “Not even close” The response sounded like it was getting closer to Jinki.

No. Hell no.

Now was the time for Jinki to start to make a break for it. To start running for his life against a killer that found him in the woods. Forget the equipment, forget the bike, he felt like he could sprint all the way home with the adrenaline running through his system right now.

He started to break into a sprint.

“Hey, hey hey hey! Whoa hey I’m sorry I didn’t mean to scare you. Please wait up” the voice grew louder, worried.

Jinki tried to run faster but he felt himself almost running through quicksand. The silhouettes of the trees weren’t moving as quickly behind him as they could have been. Why was the trail slowing him down?

“I need you to trust me” the voice called.

“Who the hell are you?!” Jinki cried, desperate.

“I’m not a ghost. I’m not the bad guy in a horror movie. You can search me for a weapon, you can even tie my hands. I care for these woods. You want to know the truth? You came onto my radar last week with all of your nerves, you accidentally got a picture of me when I was trying to hide, and when I noticed you coming back here, I wanted to see who you were. Now ask me anything you want”

“Show me who you are” Jinki said, procuring a flashlight from his pocket. 

“I’m eighteen degrees to your right. I’m going to take three steps forward, I’ll still be five yards away, and then you can flash the light on me”

Jinki held his breath as he counted the footsteps he hear, hearing the rustling of feet hitting the earth. He tilted his body to the right, turned on the light, and lifted it up to his not-ghost-intruder-stranger.

The last thing that Jinki was expecting was to see a drop dead gorgeous man illuminated in front of him. Sharp, surprised eyes and gorgeous cheekbones. He was draped in all black with a gold decorated bomber jacket.

“What’s your name?” Jinki asked.

“I’m Kim Kibum. I’m a witch that helps protect the forests I’m assigned to. This is my current assignment. You caught me last time trying to make my rounds in my hidden form. Somehow, you saw through to me. Can I ask you your name?”

And against all better judgement, he called out “Jinki. My name’s Jinki.”

Kibum smiled, arms still raised above his head. It was at this point that Jinki acknowledged the nose piercing twinkling in the flashlight.

“Jinki. Do you believe that I’m not a ghost?”

“I do.”

“Would you believe me if I told you I was a witch?” His head tilted. The pose Kibum was currently in, Jinki almost wished he had his camera out right now.

“I don’t have any reason to believe you. I also don’t have any reason not to believe you”

“I like that reasoning. Do you want to follow me while I finish my nightly rounds? You can meet my boyfriend afterward. He’ll love you to pieces, I’m sure”

\---- 

“Minho, I brought home another stray!”

“Oh?” a new, deeper voice rang out from what sounded like a basement.

“Yeah, come up and meet him”

“Do you at least find any roots?” Jinki reflected on the fact that this was yet another disembodied voice.

“Mhm, you’ll get your potion brew perfected this time, I’m sure”

Soon Jinki heard the loud sound of thudding feet against creaking old wooden steps. And if it wasn’t fair enough to meet one gorgeous witch boy, another decided to present himself as he cocked a hip against the basement door frame. Tall, regal looking, with soft long curly hair. Jinki thought that either him or Kibum would be wearing a black, wide brimmed hat with a pointed end but to his surprise Minho, while at least wearing all black, didn’t appear too witch-y either. The most standout fashion came from the line of delicate hoop earrings climbing up his ears in both silver and gold.

Maybe they were putting him under a spell to make them look that attractive.

Minho stuck his hand out, where there was also a spread of rings along each finger, some even stacked on his knuckles. “Nice to meet you Jinki, I’m Minho. I hope Kibum didn’t give you too hard of a time”

“I have to admit, I was a bit scared out of my wits” Jinki said as he grasped the other’s hand. The metal pressed everywhere into his skin, invasive and exciting.

“A bit scared out of your wits?” Minho laughed. “I think someone’s trying to play it cool. I can’t say I’d blame you though. If I didn’t know I could be brought to a magically hidden house in the forest, I’d be freaked out too”

\-----

Kibum draped himself across the top of the couch. “Can I get you anything to drink?”

“Um, I’ll take a glass of water”

“Would you mind if Minho and I took shots?”

“Oh. You meant that kind of drink?”

“It’s Saturday night. Minho and I don’t really like going to clubs-”

“One of us ends up seeing someone in danger and if we’re already drunk we spreading our magic then. It ends up working better for us to drink in the comfort of our own home and focusing our work and helping where we know it best”

Jinki reflected among the sounds of clinking glasses from the cupboards behind him. “That makes a lot of sense considering it’s in a field that I didn’t know was real until today. It’s an act of preservation for you and the community”

Minho nods, apparently pleased with Jinki’s answer. “Yeah, we feel more powerful when we feel protected”

“So where does bringing in a weirdo like me come into the picture of protection?”

“Maybe it’s protecting our hearts, Jinx. How would you feel if a cute guy was wandering your domain, confused and scared at night?”

Jinki tried to focus on their governing principles to avoid shortfusing at the thought of Kibum calling him cute.

“Um, not great, I guess. Worried?”

“Now you see where I’m coming from” Kibum laughed, setting a line of 6 intricate crystal shot glasses on the coffee table, lining up a small group of liquors opposite them. An odd game of chess.

“So, not to make you uncomfortable, but now that you know what kind of drinking we’re talking about, can I offer you a drink?”

“Well my expectations for how this night was going to go have been a long time gone, so sure. Yes I will drink with the two pretty witch boys that found me in the woods. Yes, that’s exactly what’s about to happen”

Minho and Kibum shared a knowing look with one another. Jinki knew he could not possibly know what it meant.

Kibum started to twist open a bottle of flavoured vodka. “Do you know why I have six glasses out here, Jinki? When there are three of us?” His voice was teasing, inviting.

“Two for each of us?”

Kibum grinned, nose scrunching and more importantly his nose piercing, flashing in the light. “Correct. Could you imagine me and Minho setting out six glasses if it was just the two of us anyway?”

“I guess. One in each hand and then the third you levitate?”

Kibum snapped his head towards Minho “See, he’s already so smart. Can’t we keep him?”

\-----

It was 4 rounds later, all three of them now smushed on top of one another on the loveseat, that Kibum asked that same question again. His voice this time however was slightly more slurred and with far more whining. “Minho” he pouted, wrapping his arms comfortably around Jinki. “Can’t we keep him? He’s so nice and soft”

“Am I not soft enough for you anymore?” Minho pouted and it was impossible to tell if it was in play or in sincerity. He shifted so that Jinki was almost nestled into Minho’s chest, which of course was as devastatingly firm and warm as he hoped it would be. How could he have ever been soft when everything Jinki had seen so far was edgy lines and cold metal?

In fact, the more Jinki thought about it, the more he couldn’t handle his laughter. It toppled over, mirth overflowing in the form of his giggles shaking against the two men on either side of him. 

Minho balked, “What, what’s so funny?”

“You’re not soft”

The second the words left his mouth, Kibum pitched forward. He wheezed, unable to hold himself upright with how hard he was laughing.

“Aw, Min, you’re-” Kibum interrupted himself with another shriek of laughter. “He doesn’t think you’re soft. Aw, he doesn’t see how much of a big softie you are. Jinki-” Now he was interrupted by a hiccup, “-Jinki you wouldn’t believe. He’s so gentle. He could be that blanket over there, that’s how soft he is”

Did that even make sense? Maybe it would not have made sense to Jinki four shots ago.

“So when am I going to get my magic show?”

Kibum and Minho both chuckled, but Kibum took the answer. “If I were a much more suave person, I’d say that the real magic show would be in our bedroom. But we’re all drunk and you thought I was a ghost less than 4 hours ago-”

This time it was Minho who cackled. “WHAT? Why didn’t any of you tell me that part?”

Another throaty whine came from Kibum. “It’d be too hard to explain and I’d look like a weirdo who trapped him and it’s just so complicated. No one’s called me a ghost before”

Minho reached his arm across Jinki to ruffle Kibum’s head. “Well that’s a shame because you’re simply boo-tiful”

His compliment was met with dead silence.

“We’re all officially cut off from any more alcohol for the rest of the night”

\-----

Jinki didn’t intend on spending the night. He was going to ask Kibum to walk him back to his bike and maybe on the way ask if witches had cell phones and if so, if he could have Kibum or Minho’s number.

But then the alcohol fully hit his system, Kibum offered a guest room and an enchanted lock that Jinki could personally make the passcode for from the inside, and Minho offered to make him one of his special brews if he was still there by tomorrow morning.

He was still going to say no. He was still going to ask to go back and probably topple over on his bike in his drunken stupor. 

But then as everyone was rifling around the cottage, Minho came up to him with a folded set of matching plaid pajamas, and a whisper of a promise that both him and Kibum would give him a goodnight kiss if he wanted.

\-----

Jinki returned to the park almost daily now. Work got less tedious, but not less tedious enough to keep him away from looking into managerial positions in the parks service.

Every day as soon as the sun was up he would bike down to the trails.

He was also getting even more in shape with the frequent exercise.

He would take his morning calmly, pretending to play a game of hide-and-go-seek when he knew that Kibum would always be able to find him when he was ready to be found.

Sometimes he’d see their familiars waiting for him in the parking lot, a frog riding on the back of a black cat.

And Jinki would smile and the new magic he found himself with.


End file.
